I forgot to upload this and every time I went to editing, I was called away... But better late than never!
Warning: There will be violence and graphic descriptions in this chapter.
Chapter Thirteen
Bloodshed
[Ruby]
Date: Thursday, March 25th
Angel With a Shotgun - The Cab
They say before you start a war
You better know what you're fighting for
Well baby, you are all that I adore
If love is what you need, a soldier I will be
I'm an angel with a shotgun
Fighting til' the wars won
I don't care if heaven won't take me back
I'll throw away my faith, babe, just to keep you safe
Ruby only vaguely remembered a surge of cold strength rushing through her and her adrenaline skyrocketing. Then, the world around her became too dark for her to comprehend anything.
Everything afterwards had become a blur of red and rage… When she'd come out of it, Yang had her pinned against the wall in a defensive position, but her grip was loose enough that she wasn't hurting her. Blake had already left the building and Weiss was watching them from the exit, her light blue eyes wary and cautious of the brunette.
She'd even flinched when Ruby approached her… Ruby didn't know what she'd done, but apparently it'd been severe enough to startle her girlfriend. She wouldn't have said anything if Weiss wanted to leave right then and there, she would've let her go, let her return home to safety.
Whatever she'd done, she shouldn't have lost her temper.
Then again… Yang was the one ogling her girlfriend. She had a valid reason to be upset, right?
The four of them had left the warehouse behind and begun towards the train station where they would meet their assigned partner group. The situation didn't sit right with Ruby, they had never gathered at the train station before, so why start now? Not to mention the fact they were retrieving Schnee military equipment.
'Strange.' She thought, eyeing the building suspiciously, the darkened windows, and ominous air. Blake leads them around the back, quiet and cautious as usual. 'We're usually given the full schedule of the employees, a specific location to break in, a list of the stuff we're grabbing and an emergency escape if needed.'
Yang whispered under her breath, snapping Ruby out of her thoughts and rubbing at the sore spot on her head. "I done told you, I wasn't looking at your girl."
Ruby hissed at her in response, still unwilling to believe her sister's explanation. "You sure as hell was lookin' in her direction."
The blonde rolled her eyes. "I wasn't lookin' at her! I thought I saw someone-"
"Oh bullshit!" Ruby growled.
"That's enough, girls," Blake said firmly as she placed herself between the sisters, "we have a mission to focus on here." She lowered herself down into a crouch, "We're here." Blake announced quietly, golden eyes scanning the area closely. A beeping noise rang over the train engines and Blake let out a hum of acknowledgement, "Looks like the Scorpions are here, too."
Hearing the mention of their partners' name, Ruby leaned up over the icy rocks and searched for their location. Yang withdrew a pair of retractable binoculars, giving Ruby a light nudge when she caught sight of the other group on the far side of the station.
Weiss' head sprung up next to Ruby, she squinted as a look of bewilderment crossed her face. "Wh- what? How can you tell?" She asked, puzzled. "I don't see anybody."
Ignoring the soft groan of annoyance Yang released, Ruby leaned close to her girlfriend and motioned towards the sound. "Hear that beepin' noise?" She murmured. Weiss nodded. "That's not from the station." Ruby explained briefly, hoping the heiress would catch on.
"But," Weiss started, sounding no less more befuddled than she already was, "wouldn't they hear that and become suspicious?"
Yang snickered from Ruby's other side, the blonde shook her head in disbelief. "Wow," she exclaimed with a quiet breath, "you really think they pay that much attention, huh? Exactly how many lies have ya been fed?"
Ruby felt irritation swell inside of her chest. "Whose ass have you been sniffin' up?" The brunette snarled in a mocking tone.
Before Yang could answer, Blake cut them off. "You guys coming, or what?" She called through the earpiece, snapping the sisters back to their senses and temporarily cutting the line of tension between the two of them.
Yang scowled in Weiss' direction, paying no mind to Ruby's matching glare and moving over the rocks as quietly as she could, approaching Blake.
Ruby stood to her feet and went to step over the rock, but Weiss' hand came out to grab the back of her outfit. The woman paused in her tracks, one foot gently rested on top of the boulder and the other stabilizing her balance in the snow. Making sure she wouldn't slip, she refocused her attention on Weiss. "Yeah?" She asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
Weiss' eyes flickered between Ruby and the station. "I know their routine," she murmured to her with extreme caution, "if we enter now, we'll be captured…"
The younger woman's brows creased and she peered over her shoulder to watch Yang and Blake, she hummed quietly in thought and turned back to Weiss. "How d'ya know?"
Weiss let out a reluctant sigh. "Because I arranged their schedules." She informed her, gesturing to the building with a light nod of her head. "Before I knew that y'all were behind this, I changed everybody's routines and hired more employees because I felt that they were slacking on their job."
A sly grin formed on Ruby's lips and Weiss raised a brow in confusion, "What?"
"You said 'y'all'." Ruby bit back a snicker as horror slowly dawned in the older woman's eyes. "It was the most adorable thing I've ever heard."
"Did you hear anything I said besides that?!" Weiss snapped, her face flushed with humiliation. "It's not my fault! You're not speaking proper English, you dunce!" A slender finger came out and accusingly jabbed Ruby in the chest, "It'd do you some good to learn something from me every once in a while!"
Ruby giggled and raised to her hand to rest it on Weiss' head, giving her a gentle push to hold her away at arm's length. "You look like a pouty puppy."
Weiss glared up at her and swatted Ruby's hand away, "I'm not a puppy." She grumbled under her breath.
"She says with a puppy dog pout."
A sharp, intruding light flickered over to the two of them and was aimed directly into their eyes. 'Glass.' Ruby realized, raising her hand to follow the source of the flickering light to see the small shapes of their friends in front of the station. Weiss flinched away and covered the light with her hand, growling inaudible insults under her breath when Yang spoke through the earpiece.
"Stop flirtin' and get ya lovebird asses over here." She sounded pissed off… A sense of irritation pooled in the brunette's chest again and she swallowed her anger, stepping over the rocks and glancing over her shoulder when Weiss tried to follow.
'Wait. She's a Schnee.'
Ruby stopped in her tracks again and spun around, gently pushing Weiss back behind the rocks and ignoring her sputters of protest. "If you follow us in there," she whispered as Weiss seated herself down, "you'll be spotted and shot on sight. Maybe not by the engineers, but by the others."
Weiss' brows furrowed, "What others?"
"Ace." Ruby replied dully, "Stay here, I'll signal to you through the earpiece once we got everything."
Without waiting for her girlfriend's response, Ruby quickly began her descent down the hill to join the Scorpions and her sister. She turned herself to the side and allowed herself to slide down through the snow, all while keeping her balance constantly shifting so that she didn't fall.
She glanced back to make sure Weiss hadn't stubbornly followed her, she released a sigh of relief when she noticed that the heiress hadn't moved and was out of eyesight of the Scorpions. 'We need to think up an alternate identity for her so that she can join us. Kalt just won't cut it if she looks like herself.'
A creepy smirk grew on a young, beefy redheaded man's freckled face as Ruby approached, uneasiness settled in the pit of her stomach. "Who's ya girl there, Reap'ah?" The man asked, his accent deep and slurred. "She a pretty one."
"None of your concern." Ruby answered blankly, coming to her sister's side. "What's the mission, Ace?"
Ace's smirk grew and he took a sideways step towards the brunette, disregarding Yang's threatening glare. "C'mon," he purred with a sickeningly sweet voice, "we friends, ain't we? Why can't two lil' friends talk about their love lives?" Ruby felt bile rise in her throat, she winced when she caught a whiff of the marijuana on the man's breath. "Friends share, rememb'ah?"
"Unfortunately, I don't." Ruby muttered as Yang nudged her back, putting herself between Ace and Ruby.
A soft click grabbed the trio's attention and a rusted golden lock fell into the snow, half-submerged into the slush. Blake rose to her feet, dusting the white flakes off her knees and turning to face them with a brow raised questioningly. "Well?"
Yang let out a whistle of awe. "Damn, I didn't even hear ya pickin' the lock." Ruby leaned away when she heard the quiet innuendo her sister whispered under her breath. The uneasiness was replaced with nausea.
Blake rolled her eyes. "Probably because those two were talking too loud." She said as she slid the door open to step inside the warehouse. "It's a wonder the employees didn't hear you."
"What about the cameras?" Ruby asked, following her sister and Blake inside, flinching when she heard the sound of an unidentified engine whirring somewhere inside the building. 'Note to self: Bring earmuffs next time.' Bitterness twinged at her. 'Although, I hope there ain't a next time.'
A tall, lanky man with white hair and a dark undercut appeared next to her, towering over Ruby. "I have disabled them already." He said, his words slow and confident. Zero held up a bunch of wires and a shit-eating grin crossed his narrow features, "Their security is really garbage." He carelessly tossed the wires aside and they clicked across the ground, sliding into an empty freight.
Ruby hissed, the hair rising on the back of her neck. "Do you wanna get caught, asshole?!" She growled quietly, "They're just 'round the corner!"
"I don't think we gotta worry about that." Yang whispered, motioning for Ruby to approach. Ruby leaned over her sister's shoulders, her brows furrowing together incredulously. "The workers ain't doing nothin' hardly."
She was right.
The area was littered with workers bearing oil-stained overalls, none of which were actively working and instead sat huddled around the unmoving train. A couple more stood by the train, leaning against the metal crates and laughing as they huffed their cigars. Unopened boxes and crates served as chairs or foot rest, even tables for the cigar smoking occupants. Weapons designated for transportation sat abandoned, metal freights left open and unguarded.
"Well, I'll be damned." Ruby murmured, stepping back and leaning against the divider behind her. The metal creeks with her weight, disrupting the relative silence. She reached up and clicked her earpiece to connect it with Weiss', "Don't seem like the workers are too happy about their new shifts." She reported quietly, thankful that the engineers' obnoxious laughter tuned out their whispering.
"Of course." Weiss' voice replied with an arrogant snicker, "I extended their hours and put them to work."
Peeking around the corner again, Ruby had to bite back a bark of laughter as she rolled her eyes. "Yeah, work, okay." She shook her head, now becoming aware of the many eyes watching her. "O-oh, um," she paused for a moment, moving away from the workers' specific location, "you said you knew their schedule?"
A tone of disbelief came from the other line, "Oh, so now this is important?"
Ruby's voice fell blank. "Uh, well, yeah. We're kinda inside now, a little insight would be helpful."
"Their shift should be ending any minute now," Weiss informed her, a smile evident in her tone, "the night crew will be arriving soon, but I was told that they always come to work late."
Ruby nodded, relaying the information to the others. "Okay, thanks." She said shortly, switching her earpiece off just as a chiming noise echoed from somewhere towards the front of the building. She glanced around the corner again as the workers rose from their seats, leaving behind their cigars and ashtrays as they exited the room.
"That can't be safe." she mumbles quietly, before shifting her attention back to her comrades. "Okay, what's the target?" She asked Yang as the blonde crept up next to her.
Yang remained silent as Blake and Zero made their way around the side of the train and towards the exit, a subtle caution settled onto her shoulders. "Ace says that the blue freight is our target. The one with the firearms in it." Yang reported as the duo slowly slid the door shut, Blake reached around and clicked the lock before closing the iron door.
The older woman stepped around the divider and Ruby followed, "Machete and Fuse are on the other side to make sure the workers don't come back." Yang explained as Blake tapped her earpiece to let the others know that they were in. Ruby stopped, silver eyes scanning the area as realization dawned on her. They didn't have anywhere to put the stolen weapons, and the train was parked so they couldn't derail it.
"Um, where do we put everything?" She whispered, glancing to Blake as she climbed inside the open freight.
"God, it smells like gunsmoke in here!" Blake examined, instantly hoping out of the freight with a hand over her nose. "I thought these were new?!"
Yang chuckled in amusement and turned back to Ruby, "Don't know," the blonde answered, "Ace gave the look that says we can't question anything."
Ruby rolled her eyes. "Are we gonna start the train and chug away with everything?" Although, that option seemed rather extreme.
Zero snickered from behind her, "I like her style." He announced, shaking his head and chuckling. He let out a breath.
"Zero, Reaper!" Ace called to them as he pried open a wooden box closest to the exit. Without looking at them, he gave them instructions; "Go around and make sure that there isn't any additional cargo!"
'Me?' Ruby's brows creased as Zero patted her shoulder, 'I'm never on-'
The man's voice cut her train of thought. "Are you coming, Reaper?" The white-haired man asked, sliding his hands into his pockets and waiting impatiently for her to follow. Ruby nodded silently, following the man away from the train and into another part of the factory.
'I don't like this.' Ruby thought, clicking the light on her phone to search the room for any unmoved cargo. Dread settled in the pit of her stomach as she moved through the dark room, coming to realize that Zero wasn't anywhere near her. 'Where the hell did he go?' Her eyes came to rest on the sight of a half-empty metal crate and she approached it, quickly checking the logo and sighing in reluctance upon seeing the Schnee emblem. 'This is going to cost her company a lot of money.'
"Have you found anything?" Zero called from somewhere in the room, sending chills up Ruby's spine.
Ruby brushed the lid of the box open, "Yeah," she responded, "looks like some inactive bombs." She shone her light into the crate, examining the explosive devices intently. She released a puzzled hum, noticing that they lacked the Schnee logo. Perhaps they hadn't bothered with them? Unlikely, though. "Don't have the Schnee mark-"
"RUBY!"
Ruby flinched, every nerve and muscle in her body straining and her ears rang; it took her a long second to process the sound of Weiss' voice yelling through the earpiece. Despite her ears ringing, she came up and clicked to answer her. "What?!" She hissed under her breath, dazed by the high-pitched noise.
"You've got to get out of there, now!" Weiss answered instantly, "They lead you all here on account of what happened at the-" A loud yelp and scuffling noises echoed from Weiss' end, followed by a barely recognizable grunt that sends Ruby's heart hammering in her chest. "Don't touch me! Get aw-" An irritating, consistent beeping noise replaced Weiss' voice connection suddenly dropped, signalling that the earpiece had been disconnected. Ruby's heart plummeted in her chest, flashes of heat rippled up her back, and the hair on the back of her neck stood on end.
'No.' A small voice in the back of her mind whispered as Ruby's body subconsciously began to tremble. "Weiss?" Ruby tried again, tapping as an attempt to reconnect the gadget. "W-Weiss?" When the woman didn't respond, Ruby spun on her heel to exit the room. "I-I gotta go." She announced to Zero, approaching the entrance as quickly as she could. The fear flickering through her body kicked her fight or flight senses into overdrive, she needed to find Weiss, now.
A delicate humming sound caught her attention and the door swung, the iron bar just mere inches away from cutting into her skin. Ruby stopped as the hatch switched shut, locking her inside the room.
"What the fucking hell?" She snarled, turning to face Zero as he sauntered up to her. The tall man clicked a holographic screen above his wrist and another burring noise reverberated through the factory.
"Time is up, Reaper." Zero said casually as he advanced towards her, his hands tucked neatly behind his back. "The Boss says that you have got to go." He shrugged unemotionally and withdrew his pistol, single-handedly aiming the barrel in the brunette's direction. Ruby's eyes carefully glanced towards his grip on the weapon before shifting her attention back to Zero.
'Recent shoulder injury.' She noted, noticing his loose hold on the pistol.
"Is that your way of tryna threaten me?" She asked with the shadow of a smirk itching on her lips. "Because lemme tell you, it's not working."
Zero rolled his eyes, "Is that your way of trying to talk to me out of murdering you, Reaper?" He taunted, his finger resting freely on the trigger. "It will not work. Say your prayers, little girl." He smiled and his finger pulled back on the trigger.
Just as the words left his mouth, Ruby moved out of the barrel's line of shot and shifted her weight to her middle, bringing her leg up, her steel toed boots collided with the underside of the man's wrist and forced it upwards as the gun recoiled, sending jolts up his shoulder and forcibly cracking it backwards. Zero released a loud shout of agony, instinctively reaching to hold his dislocated shoulder.
"Never fire a gun one handed!" Ruby reminded him, using his lack of caution as an advantage and bringing her fist up to thwack him beneath the jaw. Before her fist could strike at his chin, his spare hand came up to grab her wrist.
"Ace does seem to like that little girlfriend of yours," Zero said with a pained grin, malice flickering through his eyes, "I would suggest you keep a very close eye on her. You do not want anything happening to her, do you?"
Rage shot through Ruby like a wildfire, "You little shits!" She screamed and pulled back, twisting her torso and swinging her right leg up as swiftly as she could to crack it against the side of his head roughly. "Leave her alone!" A blunt smacking sound reverberated through the room; Zero's hand slipped from around her wrist and his body dropped.
Straightening herself, she poked the unconscious man with her foot. "Shit, uh- okay, uh..." Ruby knelt down and grabbed Zero's limp wrist, tapping the gadget connected to the building and searching through her options. "Where's the door?" She whispered under her breath, "Exactly how techy is this place?"
Finally, she found the holographic image of the door she sat directly across from and she released a thankful breath. She tapped on the image and slid the hatch over, grinning when a clicking noise came from the door in front of her.
'Sorry dude,' she hummed as she slid the small item off the man's forearm, 'but I'm gonna need this. Hopefully you don't have too much of a concussion.' She attached the band to her wrist and abandoned Zero's body, starting for the door and hefting the latch up.
As she heaved the door open, she heard the faint sound of footsteps running in her direction from the other side. "There's one in there!" A man yelled when she exited the room, she turned as a beefy engineer raced towards her.
When Zero had powered down the building, the engineers had forced their way inside the room. Yang, Blake, and the rest of the Scorpions were nowhere in sight.
'Well, shit.' Ruby sighed and stepped into a resistance position, lifting her hands just beneath her jawline or more her chest. The man let out an enraged cry and swung at her, his fist focusing on her skull; Ruby dipped beneath his arm and curved her body to avoid the hit.
A smirk came to her lips as the man's eyes widened in disbelief and she clenched her fist, striking at the man full force just as he spun around back to face her. Ruby's knuckles crashed into the mass of his cheek and, having caught him off guard, the man stumbled back.
"Now you've done it, girl!" The man yelled, regaining his balance and throwing another punch at the brunette. Ruby dodged and barely maintained a strategic distance from his hit, turning her clenched hand inwards and violently bashing him in the gut with her elbow. He instantly clutched at his stomach and doubled over, glaring at the brunette as his body quivered. "B-bitch!" He snarled out.
Ruby smiled sweetly, "That's right." She jabbed her arm up and slammed her fist into the side of his jaw. He toppled to the side, flexing his jaw in pain and grasped at his abdomen. "Now I gotta go, bye."
She tapped her earpiece again, stepping over the engineer and speed walking to the exit. "Weiss?" She tried again, praying that the signal would connect again. "C'mon, work." The brunette groaned when she was met by another beeping noise. She felt fury boiling up inside of her, her fists clenched and her nails delved into her palms. "Where the hell are-"
A screech of horror escaped her as the limp body of a man unexpectedly dropped horizontally in front of her. "Fucking hell!" She exclaimed, her breathing labored and her heart erratic.
"Ruby!" Yang grabbed her attention, approaching her with bloodied fists and a swollen, bleeding nose. "There you are! Where'd you go?! Are you alright?" The blonde asked rapidly, frantically checking her over for any potential injuries.
"I'm fine," Ruby replied blankly, still trying to connect her earpiece. She gave a reluctant, heavy sigh. "I didn't go nowhere, Zero locked me in the cargo room."
Lilac eyes widened and a glimmer of red flashed through her pupils. "Did he hurt you?"
Ruby shook her head, "No, he just tried to shoot me, and your nose is bleeding." She gestured towards her sister's face and Yang just grinned, placing her hands on her hips with a triumphant hum.
"Yeah, Fuse got a good kick at me," she clarified, "but I'm sure he'll recover from being slammed in the head several times."
"Wait," Ruby gestured to the puddle of a man behind her, her temples wrinkling together in both disbelief and shock. "You mean that's Fuse?" She grimaced, unable to recognize the once tall, muscular man. To ensure that he was out cold, she gave his ribs a light jab with the tip of her shoe.
Yang snorted again and hummed her affirmative response. "Damn!" Ruby blinked, still comprehending that the limp body before her was her old friend, "Didn't recognize 'em. Where's Blake?"
"She took Machete out of the building, he got a bad hit from one of those engineers, and he didn't have nothing to do with the attack, so she decided to help him." Yang answered, "Should be waitin' outside for us."
Ruby spun around back to confront her sister. "Have you saw Weiss?" She asked, wondering if her girlfriend had entered the building.
"No," Yang answered carefully, "She didn't come in, did she?"
Every nerve in Ruby's body strained at the idea. "I don't have a clue," she murmured as fear twinged in her gut, "she hollered at me that this was a trap and told me to get out… Then she yelled 'don't touch me' and the connection broke."
"Well, you don't seem all that worried." Yang muttered.
Ruby let out a laugh of apprehension, "Am I doing a good job of that?" Without waiting for her sister's response, she turned and stiffly strolled away. "Great! Because if I don't find her in the next five minutes, I'm gonna break fuckin' some necks."
A cold wave of shock collided with Ruby, drowning out her fears and causing the blood in her veins to turn to ice. She stood stock still, mentally finding herself between all doorways and exits of the factory. Her head jerked to the side and towards a single iron door when she heard Weiss' frightful voice reverberating at the back of her mind; Ruby's body began to tremble and she let out a shaky breath as she attempted to locate her girlfriend. She could feel something. A chiming noise started within her as if pinpointing the woman's location.
She was snapped back to her senses, finding Yang standing across from her with a puzzled look on her face. Ruby's feet moved on their own, carrying her towards the break room. "This way!" She hollered to her sister, who instantly started after her.
'Hold on, Weiss.'
"Ruby!" Yang called, "Where're you going?!"
"I don't know!" Ruby yelled back, focusing on her mental route; the break room was closeby, she could feel Weiss' aura. Sprinting, she slid effortlessly around the corner and pushed off with her foot to break into a quick run. The path in her mind shut off as she approached a familiar iron door, rage coursed through her being and she quickened her speed.
Weiss was behind that door…
Ruby braced her body, twisting her torso and tossing all of her weight against the door, making it shutter on its hinges. Ruby stepped back with a pained grunt, "Ruby, hold on," Yang said from behind her, "let me get the-" She didn't give her a chance to finish the sentence, she charged forward and slammed her previously injured shoulder against the weakened door, jarring it open. "Door…" Yang finished with a heavy sigh.
Ruby grunted and flexed her shoulder, disregarding the searing pain that erupted through her body. "Weiss?" She called, scanning the room for the woman. Her silver gaze landed on the crumpled form of Ace and her eyes widened. "Ace?" She whispered as she warily approached the man, finding that his eyes were wide and glazed over, devoid of life. Blood bubbled out of the corner of his red-stained, gaping mouth, prompting Ruby to look lower-
Her heart stopped. Blood pooled out from the side of the man's neck, staining and recoloring the concrete ground. "Wha?" Ruby murmured, nudging the corpse over with her foot to locate the source of the blood. The body heavily flopped to the side, revealing that Ace's throat had been slashed, starting from a small graze below his ear and morphing into a profound, slanted and gorey gash descending towards his chest.
"Well, he's dead." Yang muttered as she approached the corpse, kneeling down to examine the fatal wound, unfazed by the scene. "Who do you think did this?" She asked, making sure not to touch the body as she stood back up.
"I don't-" Ruby trailed off as her eyes followed small, yet heavy droplets of blood towards a familiar knife.
"Here." Ruby whispered, handing her girlfriend a sharpened, curved knife. Weiss gave her a puzzled look as she took the handheld weapon, "If you're attacked, just make sure the person's distracted and stab the blade of the knife into their neck, twist it and jerk it back towards you."
Weiss' eyes widened, "Wh-why?"
Ruby's eyes softened, yet they still shone with worry. "Because I don't want anything happening to you… If it doesn't kill them right away, they'll choke on their own blood."
"Never mind." Ruby murmured as she approached the bloodied, dented blade. Weiss was somewhere nearby, there wasn't another exit out of the room other than the door they'd come in through. "Weiss," she called to her girlfriend, "you can come out now. It's safe…" Yang frowned and her lilac eyes glanced around for the heiress, she knelt down and picked up the blade. A bewildered look was sent in Ruby's direction.
Ruby waited a few more seconds before calling out again, "Weiss? They're gone."
Hearing a soft, familiar whimper Ruby peered around the corner leading into the pantry room and she sighed heavily, finding the missing woman tucked securely into the corner. Panicked blue eyes met with her silver pair and the brunette knelt down to Weiss' level. "Weiss…"
"I-I didn't mean to…" Weiss murmured almost inaudibly as Ruby gently embraced her, the heiress relaxed ever so slightly against Ruby. Her broken voice caused the brunette's heart to twist with self-guilt. "I'm sorry…"
"You're okay," Ruby whispered in response, holding the trembling woman close, "you're okay…"
AT NOTICE: Nothing happened to Weiss, she's just fine, just shaken up. The next chapter will explain what happened.
As for Ruby's fights?
Before anybody says she's out of character; remember that this is just an AU version of the girl who sliced off Tyrian's tail with a shit-eating grin, and fired a bullet at Cordovin without knowing whether or not it'd hit her.
She was meant to win as she had the upperhand in both situations; Zero was not a physical fighter, he was a gunman with a recent injury and he underestimated her. The worker attacked with pure rage, which allowed Ruby to easily overpower him.
Don't worry, Ruby will eventually meet her match.
